No. 19 Michigan St routs Arkansas-Pine Bluff 76-44

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Last Updated: Thu, Dec 06, 2012 04:45 hrs

DaVon Haynes got a chance to play relatively close to his hometown of Detroit.

He might have been too fired up for the opportunity.

The Arkansas-Pine Bluff forward had three fouls in an 18-second stretch early in the game, leading to his team going scoreless for nearly 10 minutes against No. 19 Michigan State in a 76-44 loss Wednesday night.

"When he got in foul trouble in the first half, it really hurt us," coach George Ivory said.

After watching the last 17:49 of the first half from the bench, Haynes scored a season-high 20 points in the second half.

"It means a lot to come home to get an opportunity to play, especially at a venue like this," Ivory said. "It was great for them to get home to see family and friends."

The Golden Lions (1-7) don't get much of a chance to play in front of fellow students. They haven't had a home game in Pine Bluff, Ark., yet this season and won't until Jan. 2, against Mississippi Valley State.

"We've kind of gotten used to it," Ivory said. "I don't think we've played a home game the last five years in the nonconference."

Michigan State (7-2) has won 69 straight home games against unranked nonconference teams.

Garry Harris scored 13 points, Travis Trice had 12 and Branden Dawson added 10 for the Spartans. They started the game with a 14-0 run, led 38-12 at halftime and kept a comfortable lead in the second half.

"Our competitiveness wasn't there," Haynes said. "We just got out of the game mentally and didn't do what we came here to do."

The Golden Lions missed their first 13 shots and didn't score until 9:48 into the game. They had seven points over the last 2:20 of the first half to finish with 12, the fifth-lowest total at halftime by a Division I team this season, according to STATS LLC.

The Southwestern Athletic Conference team was competitive — for at least a half — in its last two losses to Oregon and Arizona State. It trailed the Ducks 37-30 at halftime and lost by 21 and was behind the Sun Devils by two points in the first half before losing by 13.

The Spartans were not sharp offensively early against an overmatched team. They missed nine of their first 10 shots — including all five of their early 3-point attempts — but got second-chance points with offensive rebounds by taking advantage of their size and aggressiveness.

Michigan State made 14 of their next 20 shots to build a 26-point halftime lead.

Spartans coach Tom Izzo kept pushing his team even ahead by 30 points in the second half. After Haynes made an uncontested dunk, Izzo called a timeout with 8:29 left in the game to scream at center Derrick Nix about playing soft defense.

"In the second half, we came out with more energy and heart," Haynes said. "In the first half, we kind of backed down."